Tutorial & Pattern: Watermelon Embroidery and Bullion Stitch How-To

Winter is firmly entrenched in the Glass House Mountains and brings cold fog and rain or sunny days with freezing nights. Even so, Australia is mainly populated along the coasts, and it's beach weather somewhere so summer is never far from the mind.

Today's bone-chilling pea-souper fog has led me to warm myself up by putting together a tutorial for a summery watermelon embroidery. It doesn't get much sunnier at heart than watermelon and a couple of bright and buzzing bees.

The watermelon is made using chain stitch and the seeds are lazy daisies which are really just individual links of the chain. The little bees are made using bullion knots, french knots, and lazy daisy stitch. We learned how to make chain stitch in Embroidery School's Lesson Four and lazy daisy stitches and french knots stitches in Lesson Six. For this tutorial, I've included how to make bullion knots so you have all the skills you need.

Materials needed:
5" embroidery hoop
6" or 7" embroidery hoop
white cotton embroidery fabric
pencil
colored pencils (optional)
needles
scissors
DMC stranded cotton embroidery floss: 
310 black (seeds: 6 strands/ bee: 3 strands)
3058 pink (6 strands)
3831 salmon (6 strands)
732 green (6 strands)
726 yellow (3 strands)
972 gold (2 strands)
Blanc (6 strands)

NOTE: The work is done using a larger hoop and then the finished embroidery is framed in the smaller hoop.

My watermelon uses two colors for the fruit because I realized I was going to run out of the pink. You can use one or both colors or another pink of your choice. I rather like the two colors together.

WATERMELON AND BEES EMBROIDERY:

To make the watermelon:

1) Prepare the fabric by tracing the inside of the 5" hoop on the wrong side of the fabric. Using sewing thread or a single strand of any embroidery floss, baste a line of running stitches along the traced line. This is just to give you the perimeter of the circle without having to mark the right side of the fabric.

 2) Using the inner ring of the 5" hoop, lightly trace the outer edge of the ring to make the area for the watermelon. Just leave enough room for the bees outside the area designated for the watermelon.

3) I used colored pencils (Staedtler children's colored pencils) to darken the rind and fruit areas of the watermelon. This is optional. At first, I made it too light and then darkened it up. I think I could have made it much darker. Experiment! Or do without.

4) Start at the top edge of the juicy pink fruit and chain around the shape of the watermelon in an arc. At the end of the first arc, finish off the stitch and then start a new row going in the opposite direction. Continue working chains until the fruit is filled.

5) Stitch 2 or 3 rows of Blanc chain arcs above the pink fruit.

6) Stitch 2 or 3 rows of green rind above the white. 

7) Make a few randomly placed black lazy daisy seeds adding a single stitch in the center to loosely fill the stitch.

Before we make the bees, we have to learn to make the Bullion Knot.

New stitch:

Bullion Knot

Bring the needle to the front of the fabric at A. Insert the needle at B and bring the needle halfway out at A. The distance from A to B is the length of the stitch. Be careful not to split the thread.

Wrap the thread around the tip of the needle five or six times and pack the wraps down evenly around the needle. 

Hold the wraps in place around the needle and pull the needle through the fabric and the wraps.

Pull the thread towards B and push the wraps into place. This should tighten the stitch onto the fabric.

Insert the needle at B and bring the thread to the back of the fabric.

To make the bees:

Each bee is made of 6 bullion knots (small to large), 2 french knots, and lazy daisy wings.

1) Lay down 3 black bullion knots leaving some space between. Wrap the smallest 3 times, the middle knot gets 5 wraps, and the largest gets 7 wraps.

2) Then use the yellow to make the alternating bullion knots of 4, 6, and 8 wraps.

3) Make two french knot antennae, wrapping just once to make a small knot. Add lazy daisy wings, four for each bee.

Pull the basting thread out and mount into a 5" hoop for display or giving.

Bonus lesson!

How to change thread during chain stitch

In Lesson Four of Embroidery School, I showed how to change thread while working blanket stitch. Changing threads during chain stitch is very similar. You might need to change threads to change color or because your have run out of thread.

The keep your chain stitch continuous while changing threads, bring the thread to the back of the fabric, leaving the loop extra large. Leave the tail of the thread at the back side of the fabric.

 Thread the needle with the new strand and bring it out the front of the fabric where the end of this chain will be.

Continue to make the next chain stitch, tightening the large loop by pulling gently on the tail. Knot the leftover tail or weave in the tail if you are using the no-knot method.

I feel warmer already! A summer design for a wintery day down under. And if you're in the middle of your summer, enjoy this juicy treat!

Basic Straight Stitches - what's the difference?

I took a few quick snaps of three basic straight stitches as I was creating Embroidery School and I thought to share them today.

Some patterns tell you which stitches to use where and others might suggest options or leave it to your imagination. Where there is a fill needed, it might say 'use a fill stitch of your choice' or with an outline 'use your favorite straight stitch'.

But what if you don't know what that is? 

Today I'm just showing three very basic straight stitches so you can see how they look. This may help you picture your choices in future.

The first photo above illustrates (from top down) back stitch, stem stitch, and running stitch. 

As you can see below, running stitch is also used to make random lines for fill in or texture, like grass.

The last photo is the back of the work.

Cross stitch and stem stitch were the two stitches I was taught first. When I learned back stitch, I switched in a flash. I love the outline back stitch gives and I reserve stem stitch for more decorative outlining and traditional or vintage patterns. 

Back stitch has a minimalist, modern look to it and is a great choice for a simple clean line. 

That's all for now. Just a quick look-see. 

If you're a beginner, I hope these basics help. If you are a more seasoned needleworker, I hope you'll send your newbies over to Embroidery School or use the lessons to teach someone. Sharing the joy of a quiet stitching session or getting together with other stitchers is such a joy and I love to share that.

Button Samplers and Two New Stitches

You have spoken. I have listened.

There are a number of patterns that have come out of the feedback you've given me during Embroidery School, and the very first is ready for you! It's a set of three Button Samplers!

These samplers use stitches you have learned, plus a couple of adaptation stitches described below. 

Start with the sampler that uses back stitch. It's the easiest. Then move on the the blanket stitch buttons. Last, move on to the lazy daisy buttons.

The pattern is available as a PDF document and includes the images in forward and reverse for whatever transfer method you choose.

You can use the patterns to make hoop art samplers or you can use the designs to embellish clothing, tote bags, or quilt blocks.

In these samplers, you get to practice the back stitch, french knots, lazy daisy stitch, satin stitch, blanket stitch, and learn two new stitches: crossed buttonhole stitch and up and down buttonhole stitch.

Hold it right there, Allison! We didn't learn buttonhole stitch. 

Actually we did. Blanket stitch is also called buttonhole stitch though these two variations are known as buttonhole stitches. Don't know why and it doesn't matter. What matters is that they are so easy to learn and so lovely, I wanted to add them to the samplers and also teach you two new stitches. 

Head over to the shop and get your patterns so get started on your next embroidery adventure!

New stitches:

Crossed Buttonhole (Blanket) Stitch

Bring the threaded needle from the back of the fabric just to the left of the bottom of a cross.

As shown in the photo, take a stitch under the cross and catch the thread as is normally done in blanket stitch.

Stitch the other side of the cross as shown below. basically, it's just two blanket stitches right next to each other but the inner spokes are crossed.

 Up and Down Buttonhole (Blanket) Stitch

Start the same way you did above or with any blanket stitch. In this case the stitch made is furthest left of the pair of "up and down" spokes.

 Once the actual blanket stitch has been made as shown below, take a small stitch at the corner.

 Bring the needle up at the end of the the other up and down spoke and pull the thread through the small stitch. Then proceed to make the next blanket stitch.

 Make another small stitch and repeat.

Yay! You've learned two new stitch variations to use in the Button Samplers.  

I hope you enjoy them as much as I did. Play with colors. Add other stitches if you like. Samplers are good for experimenting.

Cross Stitch/ Feather Stitch/ Fly Stitch - Lesson Five Embroidery School

 

How are you enjoying your time without buzzers and beepers in your hands? Mighty relaxing, isn't it? 

Now maybe you're remembering what it's like to have time for YOU. To refresh. To be tactile. 

That's what my patterns and stitching tutorials are all about. We all need that time. 

Time for the next three stitches in the sampler. Cross stitch. Feather stitch. And fly stitch. 

Now, I haven't used feather stitch in the tree sampler. I was saving that to add as a decorative border at the end of the work, so if you are stitching up that sampler, you'll only have two stitches today, unless you are using a large enough hoop to make the border. If you have used a 7" or smaller hoop, you'll have to move it around a bit to make the border or use a larger hoop if you can.

Cross stitch

This is a dream of a stitch and you'll see why people make whole pictures out of cross stitch. It's easy, can outline, can fill, and has a very simple and homey look about it. It's vintage, retro, and geometric modern all at the same time.

Bring the threaded needle up from the back side of the fabric at the lower end of one diagonal. Take the needle back down at the other end of the diagonal line. I used 3 strands here.

Repeat this line of diagonals all the way across.
 

When you get to the end of the row, bring the needle up at the bottom point of the diagonal line leaning the other way.
 

And head back the way you came, covering these diagonal lines in the same way.
 

When you get to the last one, bring it to the back and knot or hide the thread.
 

Feather stitch

When you look at all the lines drawn, it looks complicated, but it's really just a bunch of Vs connected at the points. 

Bring the threaded needle up at the top left of the first V and insert it back into the top right of the same V. Bring the needle back up at the point, catching the loop of thread and pull through. I used 3 strands for this stitch.

This is now the top left of the next V. And then you just make the next stitch the same way. Insert the needle in the top right point, pull through a bit, bring it up at the point, and pull through catching the loop to make the whole V.

At the very end, take a small stitch to the back to secure the point and knot or hide the thread end.

Fly stitch 

Oh dear! Isn't this like the last one? 

Yes, chickies! It is so much like the last stitch we learned. That's what makes embroidery so easy!

But in fly stitch, instead of joining the stitches up, they are separate.

Bring the threaded needle up at the top left and continue as if this was a feather stitch. But once you make the V, you bring the thread back down like a little tail and it becomes its own stitch.

And then you make the next one the same way.
 

These can be made in a row and pretty much connected, long or short tails, or further apart, so they show up like little seed pods, bird tracks, or flying geese.
 

Back of the work:

NOTE: It doesn't matter if you start feather and fly stitches from the left or right tips. I tend to start from the outer tip in a row of feather stitch. It's really up to you. Same goes for cross stitch. You can work the diagonals from left to right and then come back right to left, or vice versa. 

Here's the Alice Brooks-style tree sampler using cross stitch and fly stitch. As I said, I'll be adding the feather stitch border at the end, so you'll have to wait for the big reveal on that.

Cross stitch on the fence - 4 strands. DMC 783
Fly stitch as birds - 3 strands. DMC 310

Well, aren't you clever! You've stitched half a sampler already!

That's it for today! See you tomorrow.  Remember to share Embroidery School with your friends.